Shooter gets life for armed robbery that killed Brinks guard at Calder track and casino

April 3, 2013|By Paula McMahon, Sun Sentinel

Three people were sentenced to federal prison Wednesday for their roles in the August 2011 robbery and fatal shooting of a 26-year-old Brinks guard at the Calder Race Track and Casino on the border of Broward and Miami-Dade Counties.

Vladimir Louissant, 26, of Miami Gardens, who confessed to firing the shots that killed Alvaro Lopez Ramos while he was picking up cash at the business, was sentenced to life in prison.

The robbery was planned by two insiders — then-Calder security workers Reginald Mitchell, 28, of Miami Gardens, and Uri Ammar, 28, of Hollywood, who was a security shift manager — prosecutors said. Both men are locked up pending their scheduled sentencings later this year.

Mitchell and Ammar came up with the idea to pull off the Aug. 21, 2011, raid and Mitchell recruited three other people, including Louissant, Byron Kyler, 25, of Miami and Victoria Barkley, 28, of Miami Gardens.

According to court records, Mitchell gave Louissant a silver revolver to use in the robbery and told him the guard was already in the casino and should be coming out shortly.

Ammar escorted the guard through the Calder premises and led him to an open area, where Louissant was waiting.

When Louissant saw the guard, he ran at him with his gun drawn and the two exchanged gunfire. Louissant shot Lopez Ramos twice in the head and Louissant was shot once in the confrontation, prosecutors said.

Louissant took the Brinks bag the guard was carrying, which contained about $345,000 and fled the area with Mitchell in Kyler's truck. The two men drove to a nearby location where Barkley, the getaway driver, was waiting to pick them up.

Mitchell and Barkley dropped off Louissant at Memorial West Hospital in Pembroke Pines, where he told investigators he had been shot while playing basketball at a park. Investigators said he eventually confessed.

Barkley and Mitchell went shopping and gambling with the cash from the armed robbery, prosecutors said.

On Wednesday, Senior U.S. District Judge James Lawrence King sentenced Kyler to 10 years in prison for his role in the crime and Barkley to five years for her actions.

Federal prosecutors have recommended to the judge that Mitchell, who faces life in prison, should get a reduced sentence of at least 25 years in prison because of his cooperation. Mitchell pleaded guilty to all the charges against him and testified in the trial of some of his co-defendants, prosecutors said.